Man claimed "voice in head" told him to download indecent child images

Wednesday 02 November 2022

A 25-year-old man, who claimed the "voice in his head" was behind his downloading and distribution of thousands of indecent images of children, has been sent to prison.

Andrew Stephen Pallot was sentenced to three years in prison at the Royal Court yesterday after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of distributing indecent images of children.

He was also placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for a minimum of seven years.

He was found to have downloaded 1,330 indecent images and 1,194 indecent videos of children. He also distributed 1,006 still and moving indecent images of children between April and November last year.

223 of the still images and 553 of the videos found on Pallot's phone were in the most serious category.

Pictured: Hundreds of images in the most serious category were found on Pallot's phone.

Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, told the court that Pallot was arrested on 29 November 2021 after the States police received intelligence that an internet user had uploaded a category A and three category B indecent images to the internet.

Following his arrest, a number of devices were seized. Evidence on a mobile phone showed that the content had mainly been accessed and distributed using the Telegram app.

The defendant was interviewed and he made immediate admissions about his behaviour. He said that the "voice in his head" told him to do it.

Pallot also admitted creating an Instagram profile where he would pose as a 15-year-old boy and use the account to chat to other young users as a form of "release". There was no evidence to suggest that this profile was related to any of the charges, the court heard.

Advocate Hallam said: "The indecent images related mainly to male children aged approximately six to 14-years-old. Some of the indecent images showed children outside this spectrum. The category A movies included videos of babies aged six to 18 months. The indecent images included images of sexual activity between children and between children and adults."

Advocate Sarah Dale, defending, pushed for a shorter custodial sentence to be imposed and argued that the defendant should be given full credit for his early guilty pleas.

She also alluded to the fact he had no prior convictions and was of previous good character.

Advocate Dale told the court that Pallot had made significant efforts to turn his life around while on remand.

Pictured: Pallot was sentenced in the Royal Court yesterday.

She said that he had attended regular therapy sessions and had met with the psychology team at HMP La Moye in order to try and better understand his behaviour.

Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, sitting with Jurats Collette Crill, Robert Christensen MBE, Steven Austin-Vautier, Joanne Averty and Andrew Cornish, delivered the sentence before the superior number of the Royal Court, which only convenes for the most serious of cases.

He said that the court accepted that Pallot was embarrassed by his actions, but added that the volume of images downloaded was an aggravating factor in the case.

Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Allan Bale from the Public Protection Unit commented: “These are not victimless crimes, these images cause real harm to real children and the viewing and making of indecent images like these creates demand and so leads to further abuse.

"Any form of abuse against children will not be tolerated and the States of Jersey Police are committed to target those who offend in this way.”